exceL Esports announce League of Legends training facility at Twickenham Stadium

Ollie Ring
calendar-icon

UK esports organisation exceL Esports has announced its brand new League of Legends training facilities will be situated at Twickenham Stadium.

exceL Esports was recently revealed as one of the LEC franchise partners for the up and coming season. The team also competes in the Gfinity Elite Series, fielding teams in FIFA, Rocket League and Street Fighter V. 

Twickenham Stadium is a state-of-the-art facility known best for being the home of English rugby, but has also been used for concerts, the NFL and houses state-of-the-art conferencing facilities. 

In the announcement video above, exceL management outline the reasons behind choosing Twickenham and the move away from the “gaming house” model used by many. The players and staff will have access to gym facilities, on-site catering, sport science and sports psychologists which are becoming increasingly popular in esports as the margins between victory and defeat become narrower and narrower given quality of competition. 

The location will have specific rooms for players to play, as well as rooms for VoD reviews and strategy and space for all 10 players on the exceL roster to come together and share opinion and grow as a team. 

Joel Holmes-Darby, Director of Esports at exceL Esports told Esports Insider: “We are incredibly excited to have announced the opening of our new training facility at Twickenham Stadium. The location and infrastructure will allow us to create the best possible environment in which to develop and nurture world class professional esports athletes. It will also serve as a home to our ever-expanding staff team and we hope that Twickenham Stadium will become as synonymous with British Esports as it is with English Rugby”.

By having not only the players at the world-renowned facility, but the ever-growing exceL staff team, it can only go to aid exceL in securing non-endemic sponsorship and continuing its growth as an organisation. This is a sentiment echoed by Managing Director Kieran Holmes-Darby who told ESI: “Aside from the player and staff development advantages, having our training facility in a prestigious traditional sports venue gives us recognition amongst non-endemics. This will aid us in securing commercial deals with brands who are looking to enter the esports space, providing them with comfort that our organisation is reputable amongst the wider audience”. 

Esports Insider says: More big moves from exceL as they reveal state-of-the-art training facilities for their inaugural season in the LEC. With the backroom staff growing and a ten man League roster, there’s almost enough players for a game of Rugby Sevens which is the content we’re all dying to see. Congratulations to Kieran, Joel & co on another great deal. 

Ollie Ring

Contributing Editor
Ollie swapped the abacus for Sonic on the SEGA Mega Drive at neighbor Frank's house at an early age and has never looked back. With thousands of hours in Dota 2 (and no ability to show for it), he still clings on to the hope that one day, he will replicate Natus Vincere at gamescom 14 years ago and lift the Aegis of Champions. Ollie has been at the intersection of video games, esports, and gambling for over ten years and has also worked in consultancy in the gambling industry. Ollie's work can be found on the likes of: BBC, Red Bull Gaming, Esports Insider, CasinoBeats, PC Gamer, Green Man Gaming as well as his own thought-leadership substack "Esprouts" looking at specific studies and stories where games meet gambling.
Read Full Bio
Stay updated with the latest in Esports Follow Esports Insider for breaking news, features and guides
Add ESI as your preferred source on Google Add ESI as your preferred source on Google
ESI Ranking System
We’ve created a ranking system to help you quickly know how good each gambling platform is. As gamblers ourselves, we know which factors matter most to you, so we follow a best-in-class methodology to test each one with no stone unturned. Once done, we then rank each platform based on the following tiers:
  • A-Tier High-quality sites that deliver a top experience every time. They boast strong performance, nice features, and reliable support, but are just shy of perfection.
  • B-Tier Solid platforms that are worth a spin. They’re safe, fun, and functional, but may be lacking advanced features or have minor drawbacks.
  • S-Tier Reserved for elite operators only. These go well beyond the norm with lucrative bonuses, rewarding promotions, lightning-fast payouts, and a flawless experience overall.
To read more details about how we review casino and betting sites, check out How We Rate Gambling Operators.